Cathy Lomax: Painting the Scene of the Self

This essay focuses on the work of one artist, the painter Cathy Lomax, and on the way in which various aspects of Lomax's practice – invariably informed by cinema – illuminate the theme of ‘the scene of the self’. The essay draws Lomax's work into convergence with the concept of glamour; interprets her prize-winning painting Black Venus; explicates her Film Diary series; and relates her work to one particular movie, Opening Night (1977) directed by John Cassavetes, as chosen by the author – hence the tone of this penultimate section unapologetically inhabits the ‘scene’ of the author's own ‘self’ as signalled by use of the first person ‘I’ and ‘my’. The essay then concludes by returning to a more objective and academic tone, while summarizing the ways in which Lomax's work illustrates a cinematically and theatrically informed sense of a twenty-first century self, as shared and confirmed by leading cultural commentators, philosophers and theorists.

This article is the publication of a commissioned 5,000-word essay written as part of Cathy Lomax's prize for winning the Contemporary British Painting Prize 2016.